About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
Grandpa Turns First Spade for High School - Wednesday, June 28, 1961
This morning we went over to watch the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new high school and to see Grandpa turn the first spade. The other board members (but Grandpa resigned this spring) turned a shovelful, too. Mr. Driscoll and the [Washington (Iowa) Evening] Journal photographer were there. Virginia and I had piano lessons. That week sure goes fast. Mom shortened my hair some. It's hot again. Still no rain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Interesting that year it was "still no rain" and 50 years later it is "what, more rain?"
We never know, here in the Midwest of America, what any given summer's weather was (will be) - do we? When I first came to Missouri one of the first things I heard a Park College student (from Missouri) say was "Here in Missouri we always say, 'If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.'" (I thought "wait a day" would have been more appropriate, but that was my literal mind working at the time.) But to paraphrase the Missouri girl, one could say, about midwestern season(s), "If you don't like the weather, wait a year."
Post a Comment